New York City, Toronto are Now Tourism Partners

The official tourism bureaus of New York City and Toronto have signed a partnership to boost tourism between the cities.

The NYC & Company and Tourism Toronto alliance is the first city-to-city partnership of its kind for Toronto and the first Canadian partnership for New York. The two-year deal includes a collaboration agreement between the two organizations, the exchange of marketing assets and the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing.

To celebrate the new partnership, Air Canada is offering discounted tickets for one-way flights between New York and Toronto that are booked by October 23 for travel before February 15, 2018.

The announcement took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto and was attended by Tourism Toronto CEO Johanne Belanger and NYC & Company CEO Fred Dixon.

“This is Toronto’s first city-to-city partnership and New York City makes the ideal partner,” Belanger said in a statement. “Toronto and New York City are the financial, entertainment and cultural centers of our two nations and this partnership goes a long way to share our big-city experiences with each other’s residents and visitors. Both cities are similarly built upon diversity and inclusion and we are proud to showcase that sense of welcome to the world together.”

“Today, we are proud to sign a first-ever partnership with Toronto, our fantastic neighbors to the North,” Dixon said in a statement.

“New York City and Toronto share so much in common and both cities wholeheartedly embrace their diversity and multicultural dynamism, positioning both destinations as attractive and welcoming hubs for global travel. We look forward to cultivating our city-to-city collaboration with Toronto over the next two years and using the expanded relationship to boost more travel between Toronto and New York City.”

READ MORE: Chute and NYC & Company Partner for Destination Concierge

As part of the deal, the cities will exchange $500,000 in assets to promote the other destination in their respective city, including advertisements for Toronto on bus stop shelters across all five boroughs of New York and promotions for New York through out-of-home media and radio in Toronto.

Both cities are heavily invested in the partnership, as New York’s third largest source of international visitors is from Canada. On the other hand, Toronto welcomed 2.8 million American visitors in 2016, with New York state being the largest source of tourists.